ENGLISHTOWN — Unfortunately for many fans of NHRA, Ashley Force Hood, the second-oldest daughter of John Force, does not have any plans for returning to the track any time soon, at least not until her two sons get older.

After taking a leave from the track in 2010 to start a family, Force Hood announced her retirement from competitive racing in 2011. But to everyone’s surprise roughly two months ago, she had her license renewed at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, meaning there is a possible comeback in the works, even though she will not say so.

“It is not the type of job where you can be watching your kids and doing your job 100 percent,” Force Hood said. “Maybe in a few years when they get a little bigger and I am not constantly worried they are going to get hurt, fall down, or get lost. Then it might be something I think about.”

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Until then, Force Hood has her license in case the John Force Racing team needs her to fill in at an event. To keep her license, she must make at least one run down a track at full speed every two years. It means that, until she decides to ever make a comeback, fans will only get to see her in a Funny Car once every two years.

Force Hood’s move away from the track began in 2008, when she married Daniel Hood, a member of Force Hood’s sister, Courtney’s, team. She left competitive racing after the 2010 season to have their children, two-year-old Jacob and one-year-old Noah.

“My husband and I wanted to start a family and we had been married a few years,” Force Hood said. “I was around babies and little kids a lot, and I never wanted to hand them back to their parents. It was then I realized this was the right time for me to take a break and have a baby.”

Some say Force Hood started her family in the prime of her NHRA career. In her last two years in the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series, Force Hood finished second and third in points, respectively, becoming the highest woman finisher in NHRA Funny Car history.

Since removing herself from the sport, Force Hood has become the president of John Force Entertainment and gets to see all of the action without ever being behind the wheel. With her current title, she is responsible for gathering footage of the John Force Racing drivers for TV appearances, creating different multimedia projects for sponsors and, as she put it, doing “fun little videos for the website to give the fans something interesting and new.”

“It is fun to be creative and get to use my degree,” said Force Hood, who graduated from Cal State Fullerton with a communications degree. “I was happy that I was still able to be involved with our race team and that I could make a contribution to the team.”

Regardless of her position with JFR, Force Hood still enjoys following her family and attending different races throughout the country.

“It is nice that we do get to travel, but we are not living on the road out (of) a suitcase,” she said. “At times I miss it, but it is nice that I get to have a little part of that without the 100 percent full-time schedule of a driver, especially with two kids.”